


Dark Prince

by ghstboy



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze
Genre: Also warning for, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Suicide, elisabeth is mentioned but doesn't actually appear, same for franz joseph and his mama, you can think of this as romantic or just friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-26 23:27:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9928793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghstboy/pseuds/ghstboy
Summary: “I need you, dark prince. Come and stay with me, I’ve always felt good in your arms,” Rudolf’s voice broke in the middle of the sentence, but he was determined to keep talking “When I was a child you stroked my hair every time I cried… You never left me alone. My friend, I know you’re Death and I should fear you, but I don’t, so please come to me.”





	

“So you’ve abandoned me.”  
The door closed in front of the Crown Prince, his mother didn’t want to listen to him, she treated his torment like it was just the whims of a child, like it was insignificant, like he was insignificant.  
She didn’t even bother to look directly at him while he talked, begged for her help, for at least a little bit of compassion, but apparently he wasn’t worth it.  
He needed comfort, rest, peace.  
He sat on the floor outside his mother’s bedroom, resting his back against the door. His grandmother would have scolded him, saying that that wasn’t appropriate for a prince and future Kaiser, in her opinion everything Rudolf did wasn’t appropriate for a future Kaiser, he was too soft, too sensitive, a weaker version of his mother but he couldn’t use his beauty as a weapon like his mother did, he was useless.  
He had no one to talk to in the golden cage that most people would have called a magnificent palace, for him a cage was still a cage, even if forged with the finest metals and marbles. His only friend wasn’t the kind of friend one can spend his days with, but when Rudolf needed comfort, his friend was always there for him, with open arms and sweet words.  
It was time to call for him, maybe for the last time.  
“I need you, dark prince. Come and stay with me, I’ve always felt good in your arms,” Rudolf’s voice broke in the middle of the sentence, but he was determined to keep talking “When I was a child you stroked my hair every time I cried… You never left me alone. My friend, I know you’re Death and I should fear you, but I don’t, so please come to me.”  
He didn’t see his friend sitting next to him, until a gloved hand touched his shoulder.  
“ I come when you need me, I know you don’t fear me, there’s no reason to.”  
Death opened his arms like he has done dozens of time before, when Rudolf was only a child, afraid of the dark, crying alone in his bed, and later, when he was slightly older and trying to get his mother’s attention, without success.  
The Crown Prince relaxed in his friend’s arms, as he started talking.  
“Do you remember the first time we talked? You were only a child but already so sad, you tried to impress me telling me that you killed a cat the day before.”  
Rudolf remembered that night very well, how he immediately trusted the young man dressed in black that suddenly appeared in his room.  
Rudolf couldn’t suppress his laugh.  
“How could I forget? You laughed at me because of that cat!”  
His friend smiled “I didn’t laugh because of the cat, I laughed because you felt like some kind of hero and looked like a vain peacock while telling me that, that was amusing.” Death said, his smile turning into a laugh as well.  
Rudolf’s laugh died on his lips, his friend thought he’d offended him.  
“I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, little prince.” He said, stroking his hair.  
Rudolf looked at him with sad eyes, “I’m really tired, this life is exhausting, I’ve reached my limit, I’m tired to be treated like a child, used like a marionette. My mother won’t listen to me, my father never cared about me, I’ve been trained to be the next Kaiser but they never let me express my opinion, the empire is falling apart and I can’t do anything to stop it, I’m here but I feel like I don’t exist,” he paused to rest his head against his friend’s shoulder “please take me away from this, I want to be free, I want to rest, you’re the only friend I have, let me stay with you.”   
Death was silent, was that really his decision to take? If Rudolf really wanted to leave that world, who was him to stop him? The prince had suffered enough in his life, but things could always get better.   
Death laughed at himself for being that optimistic.  
“ Rudolf, sweet prince, you’re still so young and you have so much potential, you could be the best Kaiser your empire ever had, you care about your people and have great ideas to improve your nation, do you really want to give that up?” he asked sweetly, the price looked in his eyes before answering.  
“If there’s a thing I’ve learned from my mother is that sometimes we have to free ourselves and let everyone else behind, I can’t keep living for someone else’s sake, I belong to myself.”  
He looked so much like his mother while saying that, her strength was shining in his eyes. It was true, he was just like her, but his heart was kinder and that was seen as a weakness a Kaiser shouldn’t have.  
Death felt something in his chest, like if his lungs were suddenly frozen and heavy, was that sadness? Seeing a young man give up his own life never bothered him, that happened often, but other men weren’t like Rudolf.  
“ I’m sorry to disappoint you, my prince, but I can’t take your life, not now, you have a whole life to live, don’t think that I don’t want you with me, that’s not true, but it’s not your time, not yet.” He said as he got up from the floor, ready to leave.  
Rudolf followed him “Stay here, please.”  
Death avoided his gaze, but didn’t leave, he couldn’t leave his prince alone again.   
“I’ll stay as long as you want me to.”  
Rudolf walked towards him and opened his arms, asking to be hugged again, Death accepted gladly, he was fast enough to twist his head when Rudolf tried to get his fatal kiss. His first impulse was to shove Rudolf away from himself, but he promised to stay, and even if he left, who would have stopped Rudolf from taking his own life? There was no way out of this, he could only try to convince the prince to wait some more years.  
“Do you really want this? There’s no coming back from this, even I couldn’t bring you back if I wanted to.”  
Rudolf rested his head on his shoulder like a few minutes earlier, “ I have nothing to lose, you’re the only one who cares about me, I just want to be free.”   
Death felt again that strange sensation in his chest “Rudolf, I can’t do this-“ he began to say before getting cut off by the prince’s words: “then I’ll do this by myself.”  
Death didn’t notice the gun hidden in Rudolf’s pocket until the moment when the prince put it against his own head, his finger already on the trigger, his other hand grabbed the back of Death’s neck and pulled him into a kiss, in that exact moment the sound of a gunshot echoed in the palace.

 

___________________

 

Rudolf felt like he was waking up from a nightmare, was that only a dream? No, it couldn’t be, his friend was still holding him, a little tear rolling down his pale cheek, his eyes looking over the prince’s shoulder, where his body fell after the fatal shot.  
“Are you angry at me?” this question, asked with such innocence made Death smile.  
“ I’m not angry at you, I’m just sad, you could have had a bright future, but you made your choice, there’s no going back.”  
Rudolf smiled at him, the prince already looked happier than ever.  
Together they crossed the border between the two worlds, Rudolf finally felt free, no more expectations, no more training to be Kaiser, nothing, only his friend by his side, forever.

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so, that's my first work for this fandom and i haven't wrote anything in ages so please tell me what you think about this little thing i wrote :)  
> p.s. i wanted Rudolf to survive but my boyfriend is evil and convinced me to kill him, for the drama.


End file.
